Ducati has maintained stability in 2023, with its sales figures for the first three quarters of the year showing strong demand in the touring segment and improved demand for its flagship supersports machine, but one key area has dropped off.
That area is China, where 2,201 sales represented a 46 per cent decline in sales for Ducati compared to the first three quarters of in 2022.
There are, infamously, many rip-off versions of Ducati products from home-grown companies, which might not help the situation, but a bigger factor behind slowing sales is likely China’s economic slump.
Francesco Milicia, Ducati VP Global Sales and After Sales put the decline down to "a complex market situation,” but assured that China is “a country where Ducati is much loved and where we have a wonderful community of enthusiasts”.
Milicia added that Ducati has “developed a comprehensive action plan that takes into account the specific situation and we'll keep monitoring closely the market, with the goal of bringing it back to its results of the past.”
Elsewhere, things are looking rosier for Ducati, with the Multistrada V4 maintaining its long-held position at the top of Ducati’s sales tree, and moderate growth found in Italy (up two per cent to 8,474 bikes), the US (up two per cent to 6,704 bikes), and Germany (up one per cent with 5,764 bikes).
Overall, Ducati has recorded 47,867 sales in the first three quarters of 2023, a decline of four per cent over the same period last year, (49,858). This follows a strong start to 2023, with the marque recording record sales in the first quarter of the year.
The rise of adventure and touring bikes in recent years has coincided with a decline in interest in and appetite for sports bikes, but Ducati Panigale V4 sales grew by 22 per cent in the first three quarters of 2023. A big part of that could be down to the success Ducati has found on the track. In WorldSBK the Panigale V4 R has taken its second successive riders’ title this year with Alvaro Bautista, who has dominated the past two seasons.
The Panigale’s motor is derived from the 2015 version of the engine used in the Ducati Desmosedici GP MotoGP bike, which won the riders’ title last year with Francesco Bagnaia and is now mathematically assured (after last weekend’s Thai Grand Prix) of winning this year’s title, too, either with Bagnaia again, with Jorge Martin, or with Marco Bezzecchi.
